Charles Moussette. Spiral of Lightning in a Thunderstorm, 1886. Albumen silver print from glass negative. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

pamphlet of lightning

Submerged wreck. Coral suited.Polyps plop plop for a hand

to touch, to cut,and liquefy. Coworkers

offer mysterious hugswhen I say I’m leaving. I’m leaving

the surface, scooped into sky.Amalgamated. Shell shed, shell

scooped rough from sand. Unseenadornment for sky. Skull shed

left wide open. Boogieing onwind, brain circulates. Spirals.

Demanding a body. To be iridescent.A shell. Arcing.

Matt Broaddus is a Cave Canem fellow and author of a chapbook, Space Station (Letter [r] Press, 2018). His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, NightBlock, The Offing, and Heavy Feather Review. He is the recipient of a 2018 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellowship and a 2018 Artist Residency from the Millay Colony for the Arts. He lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.